25-Feb-2007
Census of Marine Life
Deep-sea species at unusually shallow depths on uncapped seabed
(photo (c) Julian Gutt, AWI)
Once roofed by ice for millennia, a 10,000 square km portion of the Antarctic seabed represents a true frontier, one of Earth’s most pristine marine ecosystems, made suddenly accessible to exploration by the collapse of the Larsen A and B ice shelves, 12 and five years ago respectively.
Now it has yielded secrets to some 52 marine explorers who accomplished the seabed’s first comprehensive biological survey during a 10-week expedition aboard the German research vessel Polarstern.
The expedition forms part of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (http://www.caml.aq/), which has 13 upcoming voyages scheduled during International Polar Year, to be launched in Paris March 1.
Full text: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/coml-ame022207.php
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